For the second consecutive month, new orders for manufactured goods declined in August, the most recent month for which data are available. August's decline was less than a tenth of a percent, compared with a full percentage point decline in July, according to statistics the U.S. Commerce Department released on October 4.
New orders totaled just under $403.60 billion in August; in July, they were $403.63 billion.
Revising its earlier estimate of a half-percent decline in new orders for manufactured durables in August, the Commerce Department said the decrease was less than one-tenth of a percent to $210.5 billion. Electrical equipment, appliances and components account for the largest decrease -- 8.6%--to $9.9 billion. Manufactured durables generally are big-ticket items designed to last at least three years.
New orders for manufactured non-durables decreased less than a tenth of a percentage point in August to $193.1 billion.
